Plectrohyla, , A CINDERELLA Of

Chaves-Acuña, Wagner, Boza-Oviedo, Eduardo, Zúniga, Javier, Chaves, Gerardo, Bolaños, Federico, McCranie, James R., Vásquez-Almazán, Carlos R. & Faivovich, Julián, 2024, Phylogenetic Relationships of Two Poorly Known Honduran Treefrogs (Hylidae: Hylinae: Hylini), American Museum Novitates 2024 (4016) : -

PLECTROHYLA, A CINDERELLA Of HYLINI ?

Despite the progress in our knowledge of phylogenetic relationships of Hylini in the last 18 years, Plectrohyla remains the major missing part of the picture. Even though it is one of the most speciose genera within the tribe with 19 currently recognized species ( Frost, 2024), only four have been available for phylogenetic studies (see above; Faivovich et al., 2005; Wiens et al., 2005). This poor representation determines that our results, like previous analyses that included the same sampling of Plectrohyla ( Faivovich et al., 2005, 2018; Duellman et al., 2016; Caviedes-Solis et al., 2020), are only a formal test of its monophyly. In the present case, there is the aggravating result that Plectrohyla is not monophyletic for having nested a species that has never been associated with this genus previously. It is precisely the limitation in taxonomic sampling of Plectrohyla that hinders a straightforward interpretation of our results.

Faivovich et al. (2005) considered the monophyly of Plectrohyla noncontroversial based on the list of phenotypic synapomorphies provided by Duellman and Campbell (1992) and Duellman (2001). These include bifurcate alary process of the premaxilla (actually, a posterior process of the medial margin of the alary process); sphenethmoid with anterior part ossified, incorporating the septum nasi and projecting forward to the leading margins of the nasals; frontoparietals abutting posteriorly, exposing only small part of the frontoparietal fontanelle; humerus having welldeveloped flanges; hypertrophied forearm; prepollex enlarged and ossified in both sexes; truncate prepollex; and absence of lateral labial folds in larvae. A critical reevaluation of these characters possibly will discard the truncate prepollex (as the morphology of the prepollex in the most recent common ancestor of Plectrohyla will depend on the internal topology, considering the known variation in prepollical structure within the genus: truncate, with one projecting spine or with a bifid spine; Duellman, 2001), and will require a clear definition of what larval labial folds